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Comment by underscore_ku | Hacker News Reader

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underscore_ku

also tape your laptop's camera

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My company is now giving us those to use in our company laptops:

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61l+gnZORVL._AC_SY355_.j...

They're pretty convenient and look nice

Those are too thick for my laptop, so I use these adhesive stickers instead: https://supporters.eff.org/shop/laptop-camera-cover-set-ii

Be careful with those on laptops. I had a 2016 Macbook Pro and put one of those one it. About 1 month later I had a nice big crack in display straight down the middle of the screen.

I'm not 100% certain that was the cause. But the guy at the Apple store seemed to think it was, which meant they wouldn't pay for it. And a quick google shows others who are convinced.

The bezel on that laptop was really tiny and I can easily see it might have contributed to the crack. I now have a 2021 model and the bezel is much thicker. But I'm not taking the chance.

>I'm not 100% certain that was the cause

I'll leave this,

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT211148

>Make sure the camera cover is not thicker than an average piece of printer paper (0.1mm).

>If you install a camera cover that is thicker than 0.1mm, remove the camera cover before closing your computer.

Our HP laptops have that built in

newer thinkpads do as well

That doesn't protect your microphone from being exposed though.

Don’t talk to your computer. When you do talk, talk about stuff that you want them to look into.

this is why we need hardware switches for microphones

fwiw, there's a switch in every ext. mic. jack.

plug in an un-wired connector, cut of the wiring post, smooth with a nail-file or put on a crowning drop of glue so it won't rip your bag and you're done.

Often these are software, though. Yes there's a switch, but it just tells the audio subsystem to automatically select the plugged-in mic. You can still tell it to select the screen-frame mic instead.

A software switch. You can test by pluggin in your unwired plug then go set to any program and select the internal mic and it'll work fine.

https://puri.sm/products/librem-14 - this device has the kill switch.

I just got a Framework laptop (https://frame.work) and it has this.

Take that, Apple fanboys.

An icepick/paperclip does.

You should also destroy any speakers.

https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1611/1611.07350.pdf

Oof, that's unfortunate. Thanks for the tip.

But that hack requires deep OS access and is not trivial, but for those with a nation state agency behind them, good to keep in mind

Yes, but travel is expensive and time consuming. Not to mention the effort it would take to track down the responsible party.

Disable it in system settings, browser settings, and prevent access through something like firejail. It is not as reliable as a hardware kill-off switch, but puts a lot of barriers to overcome.

That doesn't protect your microphone from being exposed though.

And ripping out your microphone doesn't stop evildoers from viewing the camera. What's your point?

Well tape the microphone too. With thick soft tape.

Or open up your laptop and (carefully) destroy it.

I can’t remember the last time I used the built-in mic on a laptop, much less the last time I bought a laptop with a mic that was actually worth using.

> Or open up your laptop and (carefully) destroy it.

OK, I destroyed it (carefully). Now it won't boot. What do I do next?

Get a refund from the guy who sold you that janky ass laptop that won’t boot without a microphone.

OIC. Well, I destroyed the laptop, not the microphone, because that's what OP said to do. I guess I didn't read the directions carefully enough. /s

My laptop is mostly closed and plugged in to an external monitor. The mic is so muffled by then, it would take expert audio recovery to understand what was being said. (In other words, it would be hard to scale it for ad purposes, but obviously a targeted attack could still be devastating).

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